Network Storage?

[Farmer Ted]

After a near miss and about 5 hours dorking around backing up my primary computers hard drive in an external USB unclosure* I'm seriously considering a Network storage adapter, looking for feedback from anyone who uses or has experience with such a beast.

Saw this one at Circuit City and looks like it's pretty Farmer proof,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822201009

thoughts?

*whatever issues my hard drive had, unplugging it, and putting it in an external USB enclosure worked out what ever bug it had.

[88 PS190]

never used a product like that one myself.

It looks like it is just a harddrive enclosureanyway, so if you have an external usb harddrive, its going to be a similar product... only as good as you are at keepingyour stuff backed up

[Bongo]

Get it...or one like it.

A year or so ago, I purchased a similar device from Western Digital. 1 terabyte total storage (I didn't mirror the drives). Installed the device on the network and installed Syncback on each of the computers on the network and let'r rip.

These are good for computer back-ups. And the back-ups are only as good as you get them. So schedule them for overnights when not on the computer.

I wouldn't use them as my primary storage location. They can only retrieve data at the speed of your local network...and unless you've got fiber...your local hard drive will be a lot faster.

Mine is fairly loud. I've got it in a closet, though, so don't particularily care.

Bongo

[jimmer2880]

Why do you need fiber? Copper GigE is great. We run XP and Server 2003 operating systems on iSCSI across Copper GigE sitting on Network Appliances (Netapps) and have great performance.

Yes, you can get better performance locally, but you would be surprised with the number of servers which run from disks on the other side of a copper wire.

[bigmac]

I have a network storage drive - it's a 500 gig external that's attached to my network via a USB input on my wireless router. All the compters on the network can access it. It's kind of slow...I only use it for backing up my laptop and for data like photos that everyone on the network can access. My desktop computer has three terabytes of internal storage in 4 bays (750 gig x 4). I just do automated backups to one of those drives, which is partitioned in two - one for OS and the other for just data. The backups are complete disk images. I can boot from the backup OS drive whenever I want just by holding down the option key (Mac), so if my main drive craps out, I can boot into the other one and repair and restore the original.

[Bongo]

Originally Posted by jimmer2880

Why do you need fiber? Copper GigE is great. We run XP and Server 2003 operating systems on iSCSI across Copper GigE sitting on Network Appliances (Netapps) and have great performance.

Yes, you can get better performance locally, but you would be surprised with the number of servers which run from disks on the other side of a copper wire.

Ok, maybe don't need fiber. I haven't kept up on the latest network specs. I'll trust you assessment.

Nonetheless, don't expect the same i/o from a consumer-grade network appliance that you get from your local disk.

This doesn't diminish my suggestion to move forward with a netapp storage device. It'd be a major bummer to be without your digital photos, tax returns, etc. if you have a hardware, software or user-inflicted loss of data event.

Bongo

[jimmer2880]

Originally Posted by Bongo

....This doesn't diminish my suggestion to move forward with a netapp storage device. It'd be a major bummer to be without your digital photos, tax returns, etc. if you have a hardware, software or user-inflicted loss of data event.
...

Absolutely. I had looked at a network storage option for home use last year when my backup disk went TU. But, instead, went the cheap way out and bought 2, 500gb internal drives. My home server is virtual, running on my main desktop. The OS partition for that is mirrored across 2 virtual hard disks on 2 different spindles. The OS for my main system is backed up each night to one of the 500's. Then, all photos/mp3s/documents are copied each night using a synchronizing script to another of the 500's.

Loosing photos is no fun. I really need to start doing off-site storage for them also.